CS:GO ESL One New York 2017 Preview

31 August 2017 10:27

All eyes will be on the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York when the CS:GO ESL One 2017 gets underway on Saturday 16th September. Eight teams will be vying for the $250,000 prize pool over the course of the two days, in front of packed stadiums and big screens at the atmospheric venue.

The Teams

The teams are shown below, along with their odds of winning the tournament outright from Bet365:

SK Gaming – 3/1

Astralis – 3/1

FaZe – 4/1

Virtus Pro – 8/1

Natus Vincere – 8/1

Team Liquid – 10/1

Cloud9 – 10/1

Team EnVyUs – 16/1

Bet365 has 1/2 on a European CS:GO team lifting the trophy, whilst an outfit from the North American region is 6/4 to emerge victorious.

ESL One Qualification

Six of the eight teams received direct invitations to compete, with the other two teams having to come through qualifiers from their respective European and North American regions.

EnVyUs – 8/1 outsiders with Bet365 to reach the final - secured their place in New York after seeing off Gambit Esports 2-0 in the European qualification final. Prior to that victory, a 2-0 quarter-final win over HellRaisers was followed by a narrow 2-1 triumph over G2 Esports in the semis. In the best-of-three grand final, EnVyUs - coached by Damien "maLeK" Marcel - won the Nuke map 16-9 before clinching their spot in Brooklyn with a convincing 16-5 rout in Train. 28-year-old Frenchman Cédric "RpK" Guipouy was the star of the final, finishing with a 45-27 K-D record, a 104.4 ADR and 84.8% KAST.

The North American qualification section saw Cloud9 come out on top over their seven rivals. Led by rifler Jake "Stewie2K" Yip, a 2-1 quarter-final success over L4Org saw them come up against Complexity Gaming for a spot in the grand final and potential place at the Barclays Center. They rose to the challenge, however, with a 2-1 victory overall after impressive 16-3 and 16-2 victories in Cobblestone and Inferno, sandwiched between a 16-9 reverse in Mirage. The victory in the best-of-three encounter was all the more impressive given the scores were tied at one-apiece before the winner-takes-all Inferno map, which Cloud9 won at a canter by 14 points. 21-year-old Tarik "tarik" Celik led the way in Inferno, ending up with an impressive haul of 62-34 K-D, 96.ADR and 85.5% KAST. Priced at 9/2 to reach the final, Cloud9 will be hoping “tarik” has another impressive tournament as they look to reach the latter stages of the competition.

Who Are The Favourites?

Brazilian outfit SK Gaming start as pre-tournament favourites with several bookmakers, including Bet365, and it’s understandable why many are tipping them to go all the way before a controller has even been picked up. SK Gaming won the ESL One: Cologne 2017 back in July, triumphed in the Championship Series Season 3 Finals in June, and also finished in third place at the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals at the Verizon Theatre, Dallas, back in May and June – the highest position of any of those appearing in New York.

Elsewhere, fans of FaZe will have genuine expectations their team can go all the way. 6/4 with Bet365 to reach the final, the United States-based outfit are rightly up there as one of the favourites. Coached by Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström, their five-man team of Håvard "rain" Nygaard, Finn "karrigan" Andersen, Nikola "NiKo" Kovac, Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács and Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer Gustafsson most recently took home $20,000 after finishing in fourth place at ESL One: Cologne 2017, and should be there or thereabouts this time round.

Astralis, priced at evens favourites with Bet365 to reach the final, are another dangerous outfit and the Danish team – led by Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander – have had an impressive year. Wins at the ELEAGUE Major 2017 and Intel Extreme Masters XI – World Championship at the beginning of 2017 were followed by a second place finish at the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3 in April. More recently, June and July saw third place finishes at both the eSports Championship Series Season 3 – Finals and PGL Major Krakow 2017.

A SK Gaming v Astralis grand final looks the most likely outcome in New York on paper, but with FaZe and other teams to contend with, all eight competitors will have their work cut out to land the lion’s share of the $250,000 prize pool. Let the battle commence!

Intel Grand Slam

The ESL tournament in New York also doubles up as an event for the Intel Grand Slam Season 1. The newly formed tournament uses the results from premier ESL and Dreamhack CS:GO events to determine the overall best team in the world, with those crowned winners taking home $1,000,000 directly for the players. In order to win the season overall, a team must win four out of ten major events held by ESL and Dreamhack. To keep things interesting, a spoils bonus is offered to all teams, which means that if you defeat a team which already has three wins then your team will receive a $100,000 bonus. Up to ESL One: New York 2017, only G2 eSports and SK Gaming have won an event.